LESSON 177 (REVIEW V)
June 26
"God is but Love, and therefore so am I."
"There is no death. The Son of God is free."
"Now are we one with Him Who is our Source."
PRACTICE SUMMARY
REVIEW V
Purpose: To prepare for part II of the Workbook. To give more time and effort to practicing, that you may hasten your slow, wavering and uncertain footsteps, and go on with more faith, certainty and sincerity. Make this review a gift to Jesus and a time in which you share with him a new yet ancient experience.
Central Thought: "God is but Love, and therefore so am I." This thought should start and end each day, start and end each practice period, and be repeated before and after each thought to be reviewed. Each of these thoughts, in turn, should be used to support this central thought, keep it clear in mind, and make it more meaningful, personal and true.
Morning/Evening Quiet Time: 5 minutes - at least; 10 - better; 15 even better; 30 or more - best
Repeat and dwell on central thought and review thoughts.
Let go of the words, which are only aids. Try to go beyond their sound to their meaning. Wait for experience, place your faith in it, not the means to it. If your mind wanders, repeat the central thought.
Close with the central thought.
Hourly Remembrance: as the hour strikes more than 1 minute (reduce if circumstances do not permit)
(Suggestion) Repeat the central thought and the review thoughts slowly enough to see and receive their gifts. Spend a quiet moment with them.
Frequent Reminder: Take one of the review thoughts and surround it with the central thought ("God is but Love, and therefore so am I."). Use the review thoughts to keep the central thought clear in our memory throughout the day.
Response To Temptation: (Suggestion) When tempted, respond with a review thought, the central thought, or both.
COMMENTARY
Comments on Review V Introduction, Paragraph 9.
Four more days of this review; four more days of our "gift" to him. Of course, every moment we connect with our right mind, every moment we taste the one holy instant, is a gift as well. This paragraph has a wonderful flavor to it: our hearing his words; us giving them to the world; Christ working through us to save the world; walking together to God with him; taking the hand of our brother as we go. A wonderful connective energy, all part of a magnificent Whole which is our Self, sourced from God. The energy flows to us and through us, from us to our brothers and from them to us, weaving us all together in the divine fabric.
"For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I save the world" (9:2). This is the real purpose of my existence and my experience here in the world. I may feel confusion, day to day, about my purpose and the form it is taking. I may have my doubts about those with whom my life is now interacting, wondering how in Heaven's name they could ever be part of any divine plan. I may wonder the same about myself. But Jesus speaks in these words from the Course saying, "My only need is you. I need your physical presence to reach through you to the others who are lost in the illusion of bodies."
How can this be? How, in the mess I find myself in, can this happen? I don't know. But I believe that the Holy Spirit knows. All I can do is to make myself available, to be willing for it to happen. Let me remember that these thoughts of anxiety, doubt, lack of trust and sadness are all just forms of the belief in death, and let them go, placing them in His hands. Let me place myself in His hands as well, remembering that I am one with Him Who is my Source; I am Love as God is, I am the extension of His Being, as are we all. If I can believe this I am free.
Donna Cary has written a wonderful song, one of her many based on her experience with the Course. The chorus of it repeats over and over, "He's aksing me to give myself to Him, Calling me to give myself to Him." The song speaks of the fear that arises when we hear this call. Can I say, today, "He needs me. He wants my hands, my feet, my eyes and my voice. Father, I am frightened, but here I am. Use me." Let me be the instrument of His peace. Or, in the words of a Christian poet of the last century, Amy Carmichael:
Love through me, Love of God.
Make me like Thy clear air,
Through which, unhindered, colors pass
As though it were not there.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
All rights reserved.